Highways get high marks, but cross streets cracking

Texas might get high marks in a new study for spending money wisely and keeping state-maintained roads in good shape, but the study had a big gap: Local roads.

Take a look at Houston’s 2011 pavement assessment map. Much like when I am driving, red is bad and green is good. And there’s a lot of red on this map. So the freeway might be a good ride, but you’ll need all four wheels to get there.

The pots of money, to a large degree, are the same. Federal money is handed out via a host of formulas, and the state doles it out accordingly, with the same formulas for population, road miles, etc.

But not every mile of road is under the same amount of stress, or was built to the same quality. How many city streets are concrete, versus the interstate? Concrete lasts longer than asphalt laid over shifting soil.

The ReBuild Houston plan, as well as other developments in the planning and public works departments, are going to fix some of the problems.

The recent applause for the state system is a good reminder that the freeways and toll lanes can be clean as a whistle; but if you can’t get there without ripping the skid plate off your car, it doesn’t do you much good.

2 Responses

Design standards are widely divergent across the range of road classifications and ownership or maintenance responsibility reflected in the map, and a condition assessment of “good” or “poor” isn’t simply whether the surface is concrete (reinforced portland cement mix) versus asphalt (asphaltic concrete) — in engineering terms, the former is a “rigid” pavement structure with a high initial cost while the latter is a “flexible” pavement structure somewhat less costly and more suited to expansive soil conditions. To provide a lasting good-quality riding surface under repetitive traffic loading (different volumes, vehicle weights and wheel-weight distribution), the subsurface road structure (base and sub-base) for both types must be well-designed and -constructed in accordance with various standards appropriate for the anticipated traffic conditions. There must be adequate routine and periodic maintenance to preserve the entire road structure, something which generally has not been among the highest of financial priorities for decades in metropolitan areas like Houston more focused on new development growth and network expansion, particularly in the local roads but even for those major roads under State responsibility as its budget constraints became more severe.

In some respects, the map reflects that classic statement of “you get what you pay for” — the vast majority with red (very low), orange (low) or yellow (medium) coloring are in the lowest network classification of local road serving residential areas constructed with the least-stringent design standards (and probably as quickly and cheaply as the areas’ developers could manage), then rarely provided with adequate routine or periodic maintenance afterwards.

I know this entry’s getting a little old now, but I’m amused to see a red line exactly where I’d expect one–Braeswood at Stella Link.

A few years ago, they shut down Braeswood from Stella Link up to the Medical Center area and completely overhauled it–it had always been more of a rollercoaster than a road, and now it’s smooth sailing. And most of Braeswood from 610 to Stella Link is OK. But lord almighty, right when it hits that intersection…

The left lane’s always been bad. They come through and patch it, and it fails, and I have to assume there’s years worth of patch in there now, like some kind of geological sediment. But the latest development is an ever-deepening and absolutely exhilarating hole that’s been forming in the right lane.

Of course, this is the same city that refused to pay damages to the gentleman whose entire vehicle (front to back) fell into an open sinkhole near downtown. True, he didn’t have his headlights on, but come on–a car-sized hole in the road!